Rachel Allison
I was wide awake at 4:30 this morning. My husband came downstairs ten minutes later. Neither one of us could sleep, and so we sat together and just talked. Our conversation covered mixed topics, but I was surprised at how often we returned to the topic of the recent Connecticut shooting. “Did you receive the email about mental illness?” discussion…change of topic…
Then “I wasn’t able to watch the news yesterday. I heard they were showing the faces of the victims. I can’t see their faces. It’s too painful.” Discussion. Change of topic.
Then “As I drove to the bank yesterday I was listening to Dennis Prager. He asked his radio audience to listen to a rabbi and a Catholic Priest talk about the tragedy of the shooting, but before playing the clip he asked us to notice the one word that was carefully avoided. I tried to determine what word he was referring to, but couldn’t. It was ‘God.’ Prager’s point? ‘How can we talk about a tragedy like this and leave God out of the discussion?’ We have become so sensitive to the far left’s godless agenda that we guard our speech so as not to “offend.””…more discussion…
I’m sure that our dialogue is not much different than most conversations at this time of unbelievable shock and sorrow. We are grieving for the families of the innocent victims. I can’t even begin to imagine the mental and physical anguish they are living right now. We are grieving for our society where something like this can happen. And I, like many, am grieving for a society that doesn’t understand the comfort, strength and peace that comes from a strong and solid belief in God. There are many who will ask, “Why did God allow this to happen?” God does not allow this to happen. Our society and our culture have allowed this to happen.
We have focused too long on political advantage. We have catered to the few who have learned to speak loudly and adamantly against God, virtue, and goodness. Too many of us who know better have allowed ourselves to be submissively silent…even when we fully recognize the faults of their philosophy. When we unite our voices…when we stand just as strong…perhaps the Godless will listen and rethink their anger. I’m grieving for them also. How empty their lives must be.
One of the topics discussed with my husband early this morning was how to react with people who overconfidently verbalize their prowess on a subject when in reality they haven’t a clue. Those who dismiss God are in this category. There are too many facts…too much substantiated evidence. Millions recognize His hand in their lives every day. I am one of those.
“Great truths are often violated by our speech, but they are also outraged by our silence, and made ineffective by our dullness and by our lack of confidence, faith and enthusiasm.” Sterling W. Sill